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Friday, December 26, 2014

Christmas 2014 is now just a memory, and we're moving on to the next holiday—Valentine's Day.

We started with Creative Paperclay® and a clay mold. Molds are a great way for young ones to complete successful projects.

Next, we roughly rolled out three large clay logs.

We pressed the logs into the heart-shaped mold.

To get a flat back on our piece, we turned the mold and clay over onto our Teflon mat and pressed to flatten it.

The next step is always the hardest—waiting for the clay to dry. After it was dry, I trimmed the excess away and sanded the edges.

The last step was gilding the embellishment. First, we sealed the piece with an acrylic medium. When that was dry, we coated it with Duo Adhesive. When dry, the Duo is a tacky, sticky adhesive, perfect for applying gilding.

This is our finished piece after the gilding was burnished and polished.

We're not sure how this Valentine embellishment will be used, but we have some ideas. Perhaps on the cover of a special journal or photo album. Embellishment on a greeting card. Part of a Valentine wall decoration. However it is used, Chloe and I are ready for Valentine's Day.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

I
believe that giving someone a gift of your heart should reflect who you
are. I am a rusty ole broad who has the eternal hope of spring and if
you have the right key you can have my heart.

I come from a fine art rather than a craft background so I approach art
differently. I am shooting a video for a class with Artful Gathering
later in the year on molds, casting and armatures so this is a sample of
one of my project ideas.

I
covered it with Creative Paperclay® and embossed it with some vintage
wallpaper. Then I painted it burnt umber and sprinkled Tumeric on it
while it was still wet for a faux rust look. I then added a little gold rub, a keyhole and some twigs from my yard.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

This holiday season inspire me and wanted to share to you a very unique tree topper I created for a very special sister. She wanted a peacock theme Christmas tree and we look everywhere and could not find any tree topper so I say hey why not make a one of a kind sculpt for her to use on her Christmas tree and here it is the full tutorial of how I sculpted this unique tree topper.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

My last project - Sugar Rush - was done using a large pickle jar (recycled of course), along with Stampin' Up supplies and Creative Paperclay for the letters and flowers! I had just got some mold's, and wanted to create a few flowers with it! They have different sized flowers included in the mold, but the smaller sized are harder to work with for me because of my hands. So, when you have intricate pieces like this that you are trying to paint, simply get a straight pin and poke a hole in the under side of the piece - and paint the top part while you are holding the pin! With the flowers shown here - I painted 2 coats of white paint - let dry...and then sponged on Strawberry Slush and Crisp Cantaloupe ink by Stampin' Up on top, after the white had dried! It was easier to use the pin, paint and then set down to dry! A another thing you can try - along with using the pin, put a pop dot on the underside of the piece, and then put the pin through the pop dot to the Creative Paperclay piece! This helps for the pin to not move around while holding the piece, and the pop dot, which is already in place when you put it on the piece you are working on! One thing I am starting to really love - molds! You can use the same mold many different times, just painting them different, or using different techniques to create them with! When paired with Creative Paperclay, you are sure to create one of a kind things every time!

Friday, December 19, 2014

Happy HOLIDAYS, Creatives!! Rachel Whetzel here! I've been a busy elf this season, helping with some projects for the Christmas Party at my husband's work. One of the larger projects we're doing, is creating a photobooth area. Employees can get dressed up, and be silly while taking their pictures at the party! We've made a TON of the props, some signs, and fun festive frames, but I wanted to do more than the usual paper cut outs on a stick for a few of them. I got busy making THESE using Creative PaperClay® Modeling Material. After our party, I'll share more of the projects that weren't Creative PaperClay® related on MY BLOG.

This is my last post here on the blog for a while!! I'm taking a break from some design team commitments, and spending HUGE amounts of time at basketball games. Thank you all so much for your support, and for the love you show each of us designers here! I have enjoyed being here so much. Of course, I won't stop creating, farming and generally misbehaving, so if you'd like to keep up with me on my other interweb haunts, I would love that. (links at the end of this post) Now, ON TO BUSINESS!

Gather your supplies for your creations, and get cracking smooshing and shaping your foil into shapes! I created the core for my carrot nose, rudolph's nose, and Frosty's pipe.

Wrap and twist your foil around a headband to create the core for your antlers.

Cover your pieces with Creative PaperClay®, and place them in the oven to speed up your drying time. I usually put mine in at about 190 degrees F.

To add stability to my pieces attached to headbands, I added a layer of Creative PaperClay® to the underside of the headbands. Here they are, complete with paint.

Once your pieces are dry, sand them, and paint them, and add your decorations! I put some holly, berries and a hat band around the hat:

Some orange spray paint, and shading using stain to bring out the "carrotness" of my carrot nose:

Some red paint and glitter to Rudolf's nose:

And some bells and pipe cleaners wound into coils to his antlers. I also painted the headband red, to imitate his halter.

Once everything is painted and decorated, add your dowels by drilling a hole into the pieces that will need a dowel, and glue them into place. Now you're READY FOR ACTION!!

Thanks for reading! I have loved every second of my two years here as a Designer for Creative PaperClay® and I hope to be able to return in the future!! In the mean time, if you'd like to keep up with me, and see more of what I'm up to and keep up with me, I'd also love it if you'd visit MY BLOG and Subscribe! You can also find me on FACEBOOK!